The Hon. M.J. ELLIOTT: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister of Transport and Urban Planning a question on urban sprawl.
 Leave granted.
 The Hon. M.J. ELLIOTT: I note that the Minister made a ministerial statement today on a subject that is somewhat related, but Standing Orders do not allow me to congratulate her. There is growing concern that the State Government is creating a renewed urban sprawl problem in Adelaide's outer metropolitan areas by failing to implement proper planning guidelines. Urban sprawl has made Adelaide, with a population of about 1 million people, larger than cities such as Rome with 3 million people, Tehran with a population of 5 million and even Calcutta with a population of 14 million, and about the same size as Toronto with a population of 3 million.
 In recent times we have seen the emergence of development along our south coast, in the Mount Lofty Ranges and along the South-Eastern Freeway, which is against the State's planning strategy. There is concern that this threatens all previous attempts to retain order in our urban boundaries. Urban sprawl has caused many negative impacts such as encroachment into the hills face zone (but I note the positive statement of the Minister today), new infrastructure costs for the Government and the takeover of prime agricultural land in surrounding areas such as the Barossa Valley, the Southern Vales, the Adelaide Hills and the Virginia area.
 Many in the community are now saying that, in a world struggling to feed itself, it is grossly irresponsible of our State to allow fertile agricultural production land to be wasted. They believe it will have a long-term negative impact on the State's total production. I have been contacted by people also raising concerns about the hills face zone, which is contin-ually under threat. One of several proposals now at least has not been granted major project status. Ribbon development increasingly is being allowed along our Fleurieu coast. Golf course subdivisions outside existing township boundaries have been approved in Strathalbyn, Wirrina, Mount Compass and possibly Yankalilla. We have Government departments pursuing the narrowing of our coastal zone within certain parts of the State, with the support of Planning SA, which will encourage ribbon development along the coastal zone. These are just some of a number of examples of continual encroachment on areas surrounding metropolitan Adelaide. My questions to the Minister are:
 1. Is the Minister concerned about the level of urban sprawl that is occurring around Adelaide?
 2. What actions will the Minister take to address these issues?
  The Hon. DIANA LAIDLAW: If the honourable member did not wish to speak in sweeping generalisations but read the planning strategy he would know that since I became planning Minister late last year the planning strategy has been firmed up considerably in terms of urban consolidation issues and what we now call urban regeneration issues for the very reasons the honourable member has outlined, because the Government, too, is interested in maximising investment that has already been made in roads, schools, hospitals and the like along our public transport corridors, rather than seeing the majority of our new capital works in outer suburban areas.
 If the honourable member is as concerned as he would have us believe in this place, I would very much like his help in working with Mitcham council because that council has resisted at almost every turn every one of my efforts to have it respect the planning strategy and the urban regeneration initiatives within that strategy. I ask the honourable member to help me.
 The Hon. M.J. Elliott interjecting:
 The Hon. DIANA LAIDLAW: You will help me?
 The Hon. L.H. Davis: You're against urban consolidation and you attack urban sprawl, don't you?
 The PRESIDENT: Order!
 The Hon. DIANA LAIDLAW: I appreciate the Hon. Michael Elliott's willingness to help me in discussions with Mitcham council to support the statements he made today and, in particular, to support the principles in the planning strategy. I advise, too, that an urban regeneration green paper is being developed. It should go to Cabinet soon before being released for public discussion because there are major issues that we must address as a community if this issue is to be advanced seriously in the community good. There are also urban design issues that must accompany urban regeneration considerations.
 I take very brief exception to the statements that we are encouraging development along the South-East Freeway. The honourable member bases that remark on an ill-informed press statement by the Conservation Council in about April this year. I met with the President subsequently and there was a formal apology given to me for misunderstanding the issue. Mr Peter Ward of the Advertiser took up the Conservation Council's concern, again without reading or understanding the PAR that had been issued with interim effect. I will provide all that information to the Hon. Mike Elliott because I would not wish him to be misinformed on this issue and I certainly would not want him, now that he knows he has been misinformed, to continue to talk about such issues with any authority, because he would be wrong.
 

Read the Government Reply:  27 October 1998
 
 

 
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